Lifting apparatus for earth boring equipment



Nov. 17, 964 e. ISENBERG ETAL 3,157,065

LIFTING APPARATUS FOR EARTH BORING EQUIPMENT Filed Oct. 17, 1960 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 FIG.

Gus/av lsenberg Friedrich K/opaohr IN VENTORS Nov. 17, 1964 s ER ETAL 3,157,065

LIFTING APPARATUS FOR EARTH BORING EQUIPMENT Filed Oct. 17, 1960 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Gustav lsenb'erg Friedrich K/apdohr IN VENTORS United States Patent 3,157,665 LHFTTNS APPARATUS FQ'R EARTH BORING EQUIPMENT Gustav lsenberg, Duisburg, and Friedrich lilapdohr,

Rheinhausen-Friernersheim, Germany, assignors to Demag Alrtiengesellschaft, Duisburg, Germany Filed (lot. 17, F960, Ser. No. 63,145 '1 Claim. (till. 7l6o1) This invention relates to lifting apparatus for earth boring equipment such as Well drilling installations, and more particularly to an installation of this type which is so designed and constructed that the individual component units may be disconnected from each other for easy dismantling, transporting and reassembling.

Earth boring equipment of this type consists usually of a rope drum, a reduction gear drive or a chain drive connected in front of the drum, a multiple ratio gear drive arranged in front of the reduction gear or chain drive and, if desired, an additional drive unit for operating the turn table, these various drive units being mounted on a common base or frame.

A gregates or assemblies consisting of the above-described individual units have been combined into many dilferent known arrangements. In these assemblies the individual structural units and drive units are secured to a base frame in a fixed and non-disconnectable manner. Such completely unitary and inseparable constructions have appeared until recently to be quite satisfactory for the usual requirements in the application of these earth boring assemblies. It is to be noted, however, that such installations must often be employed in regions which are not easily accessible with heavy equipment. For that reason, it is very seldom possible to transport such lifting apparatus by means of rail vehicles directly to the place where they are to be put to use. On the contrary, it is usually necessary to transfer these lift.- ing assemblies to the place of use by means of trucking equipment. I

The transportation of such apparatus by means of trucks is becoming increasingly inconvenient because the demand for lifting apparatus having a greater load output makes it necessary to build this equipment heavier and larger than in the past. For this reason serious difiiculties have been encountered lately during the transportation of such large installations to their place of use, and it has been necessary to employ specially constructed transporting equipment. However, this means of transportation is still restricted to areas which are accessible over roads that are sufllciently wide and strong to sustain the required heavy loads of the lifting apparatus and the trucking equipment.

In view of the fact that with increasing weight'and size of these lifting assemblies, increasingly greater difficulties will be encountered during the transportation of these installations to their place of use, the present invention olfers a solution of this problem by creating a lifting apparatus for earth boring or drilling installations which provides a very large output and is particularly suitable for easy transportation by means of trucking equipment. The earth boring or drilling apparatus of this invention can be dismantled into easily separable individual units of construction, none of which are not such a weight of 3,157,065 Patented Nov. '17, 1964 size that they could not be transported without difiiculty by means of standard trucking equipment.

The lifting apparatus for earth boring or drilling installations to which this invention relates particularly includes a multiple ratio gear drive to which the rotating moment from the drive motors is transferred by means of universal shafts or other suitable transmission means.

This multiple ratio gearing transmits driving power over a reduction means which can be formed as a gear or chain drive and is coupled to the rope drum through a suitable coupling member. The rope drum is mounted in a suitable manner on a rigid housing member which is secured to the base frame.

In the present construction, as in the case of other arrangements known in the prior art, the rope drum of this lifting apparatus together with its shaft member may be disassembled, after removing the upper part of the hear ing housing, and thus be transported as .a separate unit.

According to the present invention, the driven gear of the reduction gear drive or chain drive is not mounted on the shaft of the rope drum, as in the usual arrangements of this type, but instead, the rope drum shaft is coupled to the driven shaft of the reduction gear drive through a form fitting, disconnectable coupling. A universally movable axially displaceable intermediate member is inserted between the driven shaft of the reduction gear drive and the rope drum shaft. This arrangement is preferably so designed that the driven shaft of the reduction gear drive is formed as a hollow shaft and the universally movable intermediate member provides within the hollow shaft the connection between this hollow shaft and the rope drum shaft. The reduction gear drive or chain drive which is arranged in frontof the rope drum and transmits the rotation moment from the multiple ratio drive to the rope drum is contained in a drive housing which provides a unitary body or component unit which is independent of the base frame and easily disconnectable therefrom. This reduction gear drive or chain drive is also connected with the driven shaft of the multiple ratio drive through a form fitting disconnectable coupling.

The multiple ratio drive arranged in front of the reduction gear drive is connected through its driven shaft to the shaft couplings which are provided on the driving shafts of the reduction gear drive and the turn table drive. Ln the case where the turn table drive is eliminated, the multiple ratio drive is arranged in a separate bearing provided in a bearing block mounted on the base frame. The shafts and the gears of the multiple ratio drive, including the driving shaft, are arranged in a closed housing which forms an individualconstruction unit and this housing is mounted rotatably on the-driven shaft of this unit. The multiple ratio drive is disposed in a horizontal plane in its working positionand is secured to the base frame. But for transporting purposes it may be disassembled from the base frame and be pivoted into a vertical position so that the housing of this driving unit may be rotated around the driven shaft into a 90 position.

In the case where the driving unit for the turn table drive is also arranged on'the base frame of such a lifting apparatus, the transfer of the rotation moment to the turn table drive takesplace also over the multiple ratio drive, preferably by means of a form fitting, disconnect- Q, able coupling, the gears of the turn table drive being also arranged in a completely closed drive housing providing a unitary construction body which may be readily separated from the base frame.

In erecting a lifting assembly for earth boring or drilling installations according to the novel features described above, the great advantage of an installation which may be separated into several individual component units which are easily separable from one another and may in turn be easily re-assembled, is readily apparent. According to the invention, the dimensions of the individual component units may be kept within such limits that even in the case of assemblies which provide a very large drive output and thus a very large rotation torque, the permissible weight and space dimensions for transportation by means of trucks over roads of normal width are not exceeded.

It is therefore an object of this invention to provide earth boring apparatus, especially heavy-duty lifting ap paratus, which may be easily transported.

It is another object of this invention to provide heavyduty lifting apparatus comprising individual component units which may be readily mounted on a base frame or removed therefrom to thus facilitate the transportation of such apparatus.

It is a further object of this invention to provide lifting apparatus having novel and improved coupling means for disconnectably coupling the individual components of the apparatus.

It is still another object to provide a heavy-duty lifting apparatus which is simple in design and durable in operation.

Other objects and advantages of the lifting apparatus of this invention will be apparent from the following description when read in conjunction with the accoirpanying drawings in which an embodiment of the invention is shown by way of example only and in which:

FIGURE 1 is a plan view of the lifting apparatus of the invention, and

FIGURE 2 is a cross-section along line AA of FIG- URE 1.

Referring more particularly to the apparatus shown in FIGURE 1, reference numeral 1 designates a base frame on which the various component units of the lifting apparatus of the invention are mounted. A rope or hoisting drum 2 is enclosed in a housing 20 and is supported on a shaft 6 which is mounted in bearings 21 and 22. arranged in this housing. Rope drum shaft 6 is connected to the driven side of a reduction gear drive 3 by means of disconnectablc coupling members 8a and 811, preferably a gear coupling, which may be easily disconnected.

An eddy current brake member 19 is mounted in a separate frame 100 opposite the reduction gear drive 3 and connected by means of a universal cross-coupling member 101. The reduction gear drive 3 is arranged in advance of the rope drum 2 in a drive housing which is completely independent of the base frame 1 and constructed as an individual closed housing unit. The gear members 3a, 3b, 3c of the reduction gear drive are supported respectively in bearings 23a, 23b and 23 mounted in the housing 10. The driven gear 3c of the reduction gear drive 3 has a drive shaft '7 which is preferably designed as a hollow shaft. According to the invention, a releasable clutch member is mounted on hollow drive shaft 7 and is provided with a flange member 15a which engages an inner driven shaft 9 designed as a universal intermediate member by means of a form fitting connection. Thus, the transfer of the driving torque from the reduction drive 3 to the rope drum 2 is provided through a universal connection between inner shaft 9 and the latter coupling 8b located adjacent the rope drum.

A multiple ratio gear drive 4 is disposed in advance of the reduction gear drive 3 and may be connected with the driven shaft 13 of the multiple ratio drive by means of an easily disconnectable coupling member 11. it can be seen now that upon disconnecting coupling members 11, and 8b, the reduction gear drive 3 which forms a closed construction unit in its housing 19 may be readily removed from the base frame.

The required driving torque is provided by prime movers (not shown) through universal shafts 17 and 17' connected to a drive shaft 16 of the multiple ratio drive. Driving power is transmitted from driving gears 4a, 41) mounted on drive shaft 316 to driven gears 40, 4d, mounted on driven shaft 13 of the multiple ratio drive 4. This power transmission drive 4 is contained in a housing 12 forming a closed construction unit which is independent of the reduction gear drive 3 as well as of rotary table drive 5, and may be easily disconnected from the base frame 1. The driven shaft 13 is arranged in the shaft couplings 11 and 26 of the driving shafts of the reduction gear drive 3 and of the rotary table drive 5 respectively.

The drive unit 5 for the rotary table drive is arranged in a completely closed housing 14 which also forms an independent unit which may be readily disconnected from the base frame 1.

The means for operating the various clutch members of the lifting apparatus of this invention have not been specifically described herein, as they are of conventional design and do not form a part of this invention.

Referring now particularly to FIGURE 2, there is shown a cross-section through the lifting apparatus of FIGURE 1 to illustrate the pivoting action of the multiple ratio gear drive. After the universal shafts 17 and 17' have been disconnected from drive shaft 16 of the multiple ratio drive unit, its housing 12 together with drive shaft 16 may be pivoted around driven shaft 13 from the horizontal position, shown in full lines, to the vertical position, shown in dotted lines.

The foregoing is considered as illustrative only of the principles of the invention. Further, since numerous modifications and changes will readily occur to those skilled in the art, it is not desired to limit the invention to the exact construction and operation shown and described, and accordingly all suitable modifications and equivalents may be resorted to, falling within the scope of the invention as claimed.

What is claimed is:

Lifting apparatus for earth boring equipment comprising a base frame, a winch drum having shaft means extending axially from each end thereof, a first housing removably secured to said base frame and journalling said winch drum shaft means whereby said winch drum, shaft means and first housing may be removed from the base frame, a reduction gear drive having a hollow drive shaft in axial alignment with the winch drum shaft means, a second housing removably secured to said base frame and journalling the hollow shaft, a driven shaft coaxial with and drivingly connected to said hollow shaft and winch drum shaft means, a releaseable coupling means interconnecting said winch drum shaft means and said driven shaft thereby enabling removal of the reduction gear drive from the base frame and separation thereof from the winch drum, a multiple ratio gear drive including an input shaft and an output shaft arranged parallel to and drivingly connected to said input shaft, releasable coupling means connecting said output shaft of the multiple ratio gear drive to the hollow drive shaft of the reduction gear drive, a third housing journalling said input and output shafts and being pivotal about the axis of said output shaft whereby the input shaft may be orientated in a position alongside of the output shaft and disposed exteriorly of the confines of the base frame or in a position above the output shaft within the confines of the base frame, said input shaft having universally connected drive shafts at each end thereof to receive power from prime movers, said hola 6 low drive shaft in the reduction gear drive being 0011- the coupling between the hollow drive shaft of the renected to said coaxial driven shaft by a friction clutch (103011 gear drive and Said Output Shaftmeans orientatedat the opposite end of the coarrial driven Referemes flied in the file of this patent shaft from its point of connection with said Winch drum H shaft means, said hollow drive shaft receiving a major 0 UNITED STAKES PATENTS portion of the coaxial driven shaft therein, a rotary table 1,832,841 1931 drive, a fourth housing journalling said rotary table drive 2,832,229 Reser 1958 and being removably secured to said base frame, said FOREIGN PATENTS rotary table drive including an input member aligned 10 745 922 Great Britain Mar. 7 5 with and releasably coupled to said output shaft of the 969,891 Germany ul 31, 1953 multiple ratio gear drive at the end thereof opposite from 203,435 Austria Nov. 15, 1958 

